Technical Field
The present invention relates to a wearable supporting structure for supporting ballistic protections and/or military equipment.
Description of the Related Art
Both in the military and civilian fields, the need is felt to carry loads on the back or on the shoulders, however, without overloading the user's spinal column or creating localized stress.
For this purpose, structures are known which have two shoulder straps that support the load and are connected to a lumbar band, which is wrapped around the waist or hips of the user, so as to shift at least part of the weight from the shoulders to the lumbar area of the user by means of said lumbar band.
With specific reference to the military field, to which the following discussion will make explicit reference without thereby losing generality, the structure supports ballistic protections, which are rigid plates of considerable weight and thickness. In addition to this, the structure is arranged to support a considerable amount of equipment such as, for example, light and medium weaponry, ammunition, sensors, material for specific missions, food and water supplies to allow for operativeness under extreme weather conditions.
In known arrangements, under certain conditions, the entire war load weighs almost entirely on the shoulders of the user, causing, in use, abrasions and localized traumas due to unavoidable pressure and rubbing.
In other solutions, the load acts for the most part on the spine causing physical problems in the short and in the long term.
The ballistic protections, wrapping by nature and made of non-breathable materials, were experimentally shown to inhibit the natural thermoregulation; this entails high consumption of liquids, a risk of dehydration in demanding situations and, in any case, a proven decrease in the efficiency of the user.
Today, arrangements of structures are known in which the shoulder straps are connected to a lumbar band through a dorsal bar, which extends behind the user's back and is defined by a substantially vertical bar. The dorsal bar, at the lower end, is coupled to the lumbar band by means of a joint and, at the upper end, is coupled to the two shoulder straps by means of a fixed plate. The fixed plate is shaped so as to be coupled to corresponding seats made in the dorsal bar.
A number of seats is provided, the seats being mutually aligned in a vertical direction so as to allow for a discrete adjustment of the position of the shoulder straps with respect to the dorsal bar and for the adjustment of the supporting structure for people having different builds and/or heights. The position in height set for the shoulder straps is then locked by means of a tooth integral with the aforesaid plate, which passes through the aforesaid dorsal bar and can be locked in rectangular slots made in mutually spaced positions along the dorsal bar.
Today, the need is felt to facilitate the adjustment in height of the shoulder straps with respect to the lumbar band without having to manually operate the mechanism that locks/unlocks the locking tooth and to manually adjust the height of the tooth itself. In particular, the need is felt to be able to easily adjust the height of the shoulder straps even when the supporting structure has already been put on, as well as to be able to adjust the position of the shoulder straps in a very short time and without physical effort.